POLITICS NOT-SO-SILENT PARTNER IN POLISH ALLIANCE DAY PARADE

Mark ZambranoCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Politics pervaded the Polish National Alliance Day parade in downtown Chicago Saturday.

For many Polish-Americans who gathered and marched to celebrate the 194th anniversary of the signing of the Polish constitution, it was impossible to set aside, even for a day, the recent political tensions between the U.S. and Poland.

On Friday, the State Department expelled three diplomats from the Polish Consulate in Chicago and one from Washington in retaliation for Poland`s expulsion of two U.S. diplomats. Poland`s official news agency PAP said Saturday that Washington`s move was ''provocative'' but indicated it would not respond with further ejections.

Demonstrators at the parade and many in the cheering crowd of about 11,000 that lined Dearborn Street between Wacker Drive and Adams Street emphatically approved of the expulsions of the Poles.

''I support the President`s decision to send (the diplomats) back to Poland 100 percent,'' said Helen Nowak, who was dressed in a traditional flowered skirt and black-beaded vest from Krakow. ''They were spies. We don`t need communists here. This is a free country. We`re looking forward and constantly praying for the day when Poland will be free again.''

But many of those who supported the ouster and praised President Reagan criticized his plan to lay a wreath Sunday at the German cemetery at Bitburg, where Nazi storm troopers are buried.

''This is a happy occasion because we can show our Polish heritage and our Polish traditions,'' said Stan Lobodzinski, 62, a survivor of Auschwitz, who marched in the parade with 20 other Polish survivors of Nazi concentration camps in protest of the President`s visit.

Pointing to the number displayed on his uniform and still tattooed on his arm, Lobodzinski added, ''But it is impossible to forget other parts of our history. It especially hurts us that the President is visiting the Bitburg cemetery. Those were the murderers who are buried there. You can never forget.''

The 136 marching units and floats in the parade also commemorated the 175th anniversary of the birth of Polish composer Frederic Chopin and the 45th anniversary of the massacre of 10,000 Poles in the forests of Katyn, a Polish village.